


Hero is Just Another Title

by missema



Series: Angie and Wendy [4]
Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-10
Updated: 2012-04-10
Packaged: 2017-11-03 10:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/380379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missema/pseuds/missema
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grey Warden Carver Hawke finally comes face to face with his famous cousin, Wendy Amell, the Hero of Ferelden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hero is Just Another Title

Wendy Amell was the Hero of Ferelden, though it had been years since she'd earned that honor when he finally met her.  She was his cousin, but like so many members of his family, he knew almost nothing about her.  Carver had wondered if he would ever meet her, since he'd been dragged to the Wardens, tainted and dying, all those years ago underneath Kirkwall.  
  
Nothing other than what the stories said and the scant bit of information he got from his mother back in Kirkwall.  Kirkwall, Maker, he hated that place still.  Even here in Ansburg, he disliked the thought of going back to Kirkwall, though he wasn't far from it.  
  
She was standing at a table in the mess, and from the back she could have almost been Bethany.  If Bethany was given to wearing leather trousers and men's linen shirts, laughing loudly with a mug of ale in one hand.  But the angle of her body, her dark, wavy hair, and the staff on her back, it was enough to make him do a double-take.    
  
When she came over and spoke to him, she was more like his elder sister Angie, a little aggressive and sarcastic.  
  
"So you're my cousin?"  She asked him, sliding into the seat across from him.  "It's a good thing I know now.  You're pretty damn cute."  Wendy declared and Maker save him, he actually blushed, earning a peel of loud laughter from the woman.  
  
"Carver."  He said, introducing himself so he just to have something to say.  Little about her seemed like the stories he'd heard, but he didn't doubt her power.  Everything about her displayed her ease with the power and position she'd earned, commanding easily, even when she was informal.  
  
"Wendy."  
  
"Everyone knows who you are Commander."  
  
"Ah, but I am not Commander of the Grey anymore.  At least not in Ferelden.  But maybe I still get to use the title?  I was never clear on that."  She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment in a thoughtful pose and then resume talking.  "You're Fereldan too?"  
  
"Yeah, from Lothering."  
  
"I went there!"  Wendy exclaimed.  "Right when I first became a Warden.  I picked up a Chantry Sister and qunari in a cage."  
  
"Right, he killed some of Bethany's friends.  Mine too, but they were closer to Beth."  
  
"Bethany?"  
  
"My sister."  He answered, his expression turning stony.   
  
"I thought her name was Angela?"  
  
"Angie is my older sister.  Bethany was my twin."  
  
"Was.  I'm sorry."  Wendy picked up on the past tense right away.  
  
"Me too."  Carver said sullenly, blowing out an impatient breath.  
  
"How?"  
  
"Darkspawn.  Ogre.  We were fleeing Lothering."  
  
"You're a Warden now.  Do what I do, kill every single one of those blighters.  It won't bring them back, but it will slow down the destruction of all that we love."  
  
Carver didn't know what to say to that, but he nodded.  He studied Wendy as she ate, watching her gulp down food.  She attacked her food as if it had offended her, and was far less refined than either of his sisters, but he liked that.  It made her different - family, but not indistinguishable from what he already had.  Around her neck was a necklace with a crest of some sort on it, different than the Amell crest he saw in the Viscount's Keep in Kirkwall.  He wondered what it was.  
  
"You like being a Warden?"  Carver asked her.  
  
"I'd probably be in the Aeonar if I wasn't.  Had this knuckle-headed buddy, Jowan, back in the Tower in Ferelden.  One day he asked me to help him and his girl, get this, a frickin Chantry initiate to break out.   I did it too, got me into a damn heap of trouble.  Those things never go as planned."  She smiled to herself, leaning back slightly as she remembered.  "But yeah, I like this life, hard as it is."  
  
He nodded in agreement.  He did too, but he didn't deny that it wore on him at times.  
  
A dark haired man with a bow strapped to his back come up to her, sitting down next to her on the bench without invitation.  He was so quiet, Carver didn't hear him approach, even in his armor, but he had a noble bearing about him. It took all kinds to be Wardens, but he was always surprised when he met nobles, lesser daughters and sons that gave everything up to serve.  Wendy turned her head and smiled at him, scooting so close Carver thought she was going to end up in his lap.  
  
"Nate, babe, this is my cousin, Carver."  
  
"Nice to meet you, Carver.  I'm Nathaniel."  The man reached a hand across the table to shake with him, and he took it in his, feeling the rough callouses that came from using the ornate, old looking bow on his back.  He looked familiar, and had a hoarse voice, but it was the trinket around his neck that truly caught Carver's eye.  It had the mark of the Circle on it and he'd bet that Wendy had given it to him.  It must be his house crest she wore around her neck.  Suddenly Wendy no longer reminded him of Bethany, but very strongly of his older sister Angie.

He would have liked more time to talk to her, to get up his courage to ask the questions in his mind, but he was intimidated by her, whether or not she knew it.  There was cool confidence there, an ease that he hadn't witnessed in many people, especially not the ones related to him.  But the Wardens had duties, and he wasn't there for idle chatter with a long-lost relation.  Though he fought with her, they didn't have many chances to talk after they first met.  
  
Before she left two weeks later, she came to see him.  They'd played cards together, drank ale, and talked about their lives before.  She never really knew her family, though she tried to keep in touch.  It was only because she was leaving, and a little bit because of the ale that Carver had enough courage to talk openly with her.  
  
"Do you know how intimidating you are?"  He asked her in a brusque voice.  If it had been one of his sisters he would have gotten an apology - heartfelt from Beth, sarcastic from Angie.  But Wendy merely laughed, her raucous cackles echoing around the room.

"It's the 'Hero of Ferelden' thing isn't it?  Whenever I meet someone they always have that in the back of their mind, but it's just another title.  I did what I had to do, and let me tell you, I did my fair share of whining back then."  
  
"Did you know Knight-Captain Cullen?"  He asked, slightly ashamed of himself for wondering.  
  
"Ha.  Yeah.  He's Knight-Captain now?  I knew he was in Kirkwall."  
  
"There's a rumor about you and him, the recruits down in the Gallows told me."  He watched her lean forward, her hands covering her face, dark hair closing curtains around it.  He'd seen his mother do this several times and wondered if Wendy knew, if she knew how much Amell she actually had in her.  He hadn't even realized until he met her, but she was definitely family, every thing about her felt vaguely familiar.  When she sat back again, she looked vulnerable and just for a second he saw it, he saw Bethany again.  
  
"It's not a rumor.  I mean, I don't know what you heard, but there was something, just a spark though.  Nothing to get either of us in trouble.  He's a templar through and through, and he'd never do anything to undermine the Order.  Including me."  Wendy finished.  
  
"But I cared for him, and he had feelings for me apparently.  There were blood mages, they kept him trapped and I wasn't there.  Maybe if I had been, I'd be dead, or I could have fought along side him.  I don't know.  But if he's still in the Order, he's probably rededicated himself to the rules.  I can guarantee you he's chaste."  She said and laughed heartily at Carver's sputtering.   
  
"Sorry to be so nosy."  Carver said, apologizing now that he knew the truth.  
  
"It's okay.  I'm with Nate now, but it hurt for a while.  I hope he isn't still hurting.  Maker, tell your sister to keep away from him, he's got a thing for Amell mages."  Wendy joked.  
  
"Angie, ha.  She's already got a templar, if he's even still alive.  The last I knew, she wouldn't even look at anyone else."  
  
"So your sister likes men in skirts too.  Or maybe it's the uniforms, cause Nate does fill his out pretty well.  Anyway, it's a good thing.  I bet it's gotten you laid a couple of times."  Wendy speculated, her loud, bawdy laughter filling the room when Carver blushed.  
  
"It's been an adventure."  He said modestly.  
  
"That it has.  Hey, keep in touch cousin.  I need to get out of here if I am going to get any rest before I leave.  Don't get dead Carver, Commander's orders."  She said as she walked over to give him a rough hug.   
  
"You either, Commander."  Carver replied into her shoulder.  
  
It was the last time he saw her, but when Nathaniel came back, he assured Carver that she was alright.


End file.
